The present invention relates to a drum supporting device for supporting a drum, such as a tom-tom, on a bass drum or a stand, for instance. The present invention also pertains to a drum.
A drum set includes one or more of tom-toms mounted above a bass drum. A tom-tom is mounted by use of a holder attached to a bass drum or a cymbal stand, or a dedicated tom-tom stand, or the like. For example, Patent Documents cited below disclose a drum support systems applied to a holder or a tom-tom stand for mounting a tom-tom.
In the drum support system disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,561, a plurality of clamping members is attached to an upper end of a bracket. Also, at a lower end of the bracket, one supporting projection is attached. According to this structure, bolts of the clamping members are tightened with an upper hoop of the drum grasped between the clamping members and the bracket. In this structure, the clamping members support the upper hoop and the supporting projection abuts against a surface of a shell. The drum is attached to the bracket in this state and attached to a holder or a tom-tom stand, for example.
In the drum support system disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,288, a semi-circular arm extending along an upper hoop is fixed to an upper end of a bracket. There is also provided one each arm-side attaching portion at a middle portion and both ends of the arm. On the other hand, a hoop-side attaching portion is provided at a location of the upper hoop of the drum corresponding to each arm-side attaching portion. According to this structure, the arm is placed along a lower edge of the upper hoop and the three arm-side attaching portions are fixed to the corresponding hoop-side attaching portions by screws, respectively. In this structure, the middle portion and both ends of the arm are fixed to the upper hoop to mount the drum on the bracket.
Also, in the drum support system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-127669, a pair of hoop-side attaching portions is attached to an upper hoop and a single hoop-side attaching portion is attached to a lower hoop. According to this structure, two locations of an upper end of a bracket are fixed to the pair of hoop-side attaching portions while one location of a lower end of the bracket is fixed to the hoop-side attaching portion by use of screws. In this structure, the upper and lower ends of the bracket are fixed to the upper and lower hoops, respectively, to mount the drum on the bracket.
According to the drum support system disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,561, however, vibration of the shell is impeded by the supporting projection when the drum is struck since the drum is supported with the supporting projection abutted against the surface of the shell. For this reason, it is impossible to draw out the maximum potential of the vibration of the shell or to sufficiently obtain true sustain and sound volume of the drum.
According to the drum support system disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,288, vibration of the shell is not impeded by the arm because the arm is fixed to the upper hoop. However, since the arm is fixed only to the upper hoop, the drum's own weight is likely to concentrate upon the upper hoop. Accordingly, there is a risk that an impact produced when the drum is struck may cause the upper hoop to deform and the deformation of the hoop may affect the sound volume or sound quality of the drum.
According to the drum support system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-127669, on the other hand, it is possible to distribute the weight of the drum to the upper hoop and the lower hoop because the bracket is fixed to both the upper and lower hoops. However, since the hoop-side attaching portions attached to the upper hoop are positioned close to each other, the weight of the drum is still likely to concentrate on a portion of the upper hoop near the hoop-side attaching portions. Therefore, it is impossible to completely eliminate the potential deformation of the upper hoop caused by an impact produced when the drum is struck, and deformation of the hoop may affect the sound volume or sound quality of the drum.